Cuyama Oaks XP Ride Start
Here are a couple of paragraphs describing this research paper:
This study characterized the effect of diet on glucose kinetics in resting and exercising horses using new modeling methods. Horses adapted to a fat-supplemented feed utilized less glucose during low-intensity exercise. Fat supplementation in horses may therefore promote greater flexibility in the selection of substrate to meet energy demands for optimal health and performance.
and
In conclusion, adaptation to a diet that replaces soluble carbohydrates (sugar and starch) with fat as an alternative energy source may avoid reliance on glucose substrate during exercise. The findings of this study could reflect a greater capacity for fat supplemented horse to select alternate fuel sources. This capacity could spare limited energy sources (i.e. muscle glycogen) during endurance exercise and may reduce the risk of metabolic dysfunction such as insulin resistance. Similarly, exercise-induced upregulation of glucose utilization may promote metabolic efficiency independent of diet, thus avoiding or even reversing metabolic dysfunction.
If you’d like to download the .pdf and read the entire thing, click here. Interesting stuff!!
I have found that using prilled fat (I used FatPak100, a product made for feeder pigs that most feed stores can get if you ask) is the easiest. If you feed liquid oil then it needs to be kept refrigerated as it will go rancid really fast after it’s been opened. To check the fat content of some commercial feeds, click here. Read what Lew Hollander has to stay about feeding fat to endurance horses.
Of course, I have not fed fat in years. I might now if I were to be more competitive or if I had a horse that was having difficulty keeping weight but….as you guys know my horses all maintain their weight too well no matter how heavy the workload! I am happy following the KISS and Less is More methods.
While I am a supporter of adding healthy fats to horse’s diets to increase and support energy production, I am more than a little surprised at your choice of fat supplement for your horses in choosing FatPak100. Pigs (like humans) are omnivores and have gall bladders – necessary for breaking down animal fats. Horses have no such organ and do not thrive on saturated animal fats.
If you want to increase the fat levels in your horse’s diet – try feeding tested-chemical-free whole grains which have not been fractionated to remove the fat for other uses (most corn, soy, rice have been fractionated through petroleum distillation and are NOT good sources of fat once in this form). Other great, and healthy sources of fat are coconut oil, chia seed and fresh ground or cold press flax.
Trust your horse’s innate knowledge – if you put a steak in his feeder he would cringe in disgust – it is not an appropriate food source for herbivores!
Kay Aubrey-Chimene (past endurance enthusiast – never a top 10er)
BioNutritional Consultant
Grand Adventures Ranch
Holistic Equine Wellness Center
Sonoita, Arizona
Hi Kay – thanks for writing. I had some of those same concerns about Fat Pak years and years ago when I fed it prior to getting my horses ready for the 2001 XP. I’m going to quote below from Dr. Susan Garlinghouse a bit since she can explain it so much better than I can why using prilled fat (Fat Pak) in our horses is an okay choice. Karen
“Animal fat is commonly used as a fat supplement for horses, cattle,swine, poultry, etc. It’s virtually the same in digestibility as vegetable-derived fats and has about the same energy level.
The advantange to using the crystallized fat is that it’s very often more palatable to the horse, as it doesn’t have the slimy texture to it. It stays fresher much longer than liquid oil and is easy to store as long as it doesn’t go over about a hundred degrees, when it starts to melt.
Some people are horrified over the very idea of feeding an animal fat to horses, that it’s “unnatural”. But, nutritionally, it’s perfectly acceptable, causes no physiological disadvantages and is no more unnatural than most of the other things we ask horses to do for us. It’s okay if someone doesn’t feel comfortable feeding animal fat, but by the same standards, they also shouldn’t use leather tack or bristle brushes or neatsfoot oil. And for that matter, feeding fats of any kind, or large amounts of grain, or even hay at all is a deviation from what the horse would be eating in the wild. Don’t mean this to turn
into a soapbox, but I thought it likely the subject might come up at some point.”
similar findings also for ultrarunners
happy trails
gp and gazi
My work is all about using “in the wild state” plant oils. As others have commented Horses do not have a gall bladder but they do have a gall bladder energy meridian which tests show are considerably weakened by the use of Animal fats. It is easy to enable adequate intake of the correct Omega oils by using self selected plant oils either from Nuts, Fruits, Seeds or Forage Plants. These are what the wild Horse choosesto self nourish with dependent on their unique energy needs according to the seasons and situations. It is easy to give unhelpful supplements for quite a while before the side effects manifest in ill health and actual physical dis-ease. Learning to test a horses energy meridians and working in partnership with their highly evolved nutrition instincts is by far the safest long term strategy for pristine wellbeing and first class optimum performance. The system most tested across the world is Touch for Health(tm) and i encourage all who wish for perfect health in their Horses to take at least level one. It is also important to discern the difference between highly processed “dead” oils and those grown and extracted to produce a near nature perfect whole oil bursting with live nutrients. The better quality of the food is reflected in the better the body grown from it.